The two four-day matches he played before the Momentum One Day Cup and an improved bowling action are part of the reason why George Linde’s name is almost the first to be dotted down on coach Ashwell Prince’s team sheet.

Linde has scored 164 runs in the opening 4 matches of the tournament and he has captured 6 wickets at an impressive average of 24.50, at an economy rate of just 3.97, with best figures of 3-39 against the Bizhub Highveld Lions this past Sunday in Oudtshoorn.

But the all-rounder preferred the 2-23 that he captured against the VKB Knights.

The World Sports Betting Cape Cobras have won two out of four games so far and although the bowlers have at times been under pressure, Linde has given the bowling unit credit for their perfomances. He said the VKB Knights were on their way to 350 at one stage, but the Cobras bowlers kept plugging away and pushed the run-rate down. Ultimately the World Sports Betting Cape Cobras won that match, after a fine century from Kyle Verreynne.

Linde says his improved action allows him to regulate his own pace and he also communicates with fellow spinner Dane Piedt, about the wicket.

“In order for you to be successful, you have to read the batsman and the wicket well,” said Linde.

“My consistency has now improved and I can now frustrate batsmen who cannot pierce the field and then I force them into fatal errors,” he said.

He has done this so excellently that the World Sports Betting Cape Cobras coach, Ashwell Prince, has called him a future Proteas player.

One of the reasons for this high praise is that Linde is an underrated batsman higher up the order, where he smashed 57 off 55 balls in the match against the Lions, coming in at number 4, which propelled the World Sports Betting Cape Cobras to 298 for five. He received great support from the rest of the top-order, especially from Zubayr Hamza.

Linde is upbeat about the game on Friday against the Multiply Titans. “It’s one of the matches every season that we relish – to play against the Titans. If we win this game, we will have momentum on our side,” he concluded.